Numerous organizations use private internal communication networks in day-to-day operations. Typically, these internal networks are secure and not open to general access by external third parties. With the increased usage of the public Internet for business and other purposes, it has become desirable for an organization to connect the users of the organization's internal network to the public Internet.
Many organizations use Internet gateways, implemented by computer workstations executing software, to provide a connection between the internal network and the Internet. These Internet gateways can include firewall protection for the internal network in addition to providing connectivity between the internal network and the Internet. Where an organization uses more than one Internet gateway, each user on the organization's internal network can, for example, be assigned to a designated Internet gateway. The users of the internal network are thereby provided access to the Internet through their designated Internet gateways.
Use of Internet gateways provides an effective means for connecting a private internal network to the Internet without compromising the security of the internal network. However, the usage habits of the various users can vary greatly. Consequently, distributing the users across multiple Internet gateways to ensure best usage of resources and efficient service to the users is a difficult task. In accomplishing this task, it can be important to the organization to have a means for monitoring the performance of the Internet gateways.